Kenya’s Totohealth, a mobile and web-based network that supplies mothers and pregnant women with life-saving information and advice is among the three runners up, who each won £10,000 ($15,000) in the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation held today in Tanzania.
Founded in 2014, Totohealth enables parents and caregivers to receive targeted and action oriented messages based on when and where the child was born or concieved. These text messages highlight warning signs in a child’s health and connect mothers with local health care facilities.
Last year September Totohealth announced it had raised $140,000 from Spark International to launch in Tanzania. The firm that time said the Tanzania launch was in line with its expansion plans. In Kenya, Totohealth had launched in six counties of Nairobi, Machakos, Nandi, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet and Garissa and as well in partnership with paying clients like Carolina for Kibera, Global One, Kidogo, DSW and now Shalom Hospital.
Led by Felix Kimaru the health innovation has in just one year, signed up 15,395 parents receiving life-saving content from Totohealth, and registered through more than 1,051 community health volunteers.
The other two runners up include Uganda’s Kamata, an electricity-theft-prevention device that attaches to each household power supply and alerts authorities and cuts off power supply when the power is tampered with and South Africa’s Standard Microgrid, an electricity utility-in-a-box that speeds up rural electrification and reduces energy costs.
Cameroonian innovator Arthur Zang was the overall winner of the second Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation for his heart-monitoring device, the Cardio-Pad. The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, encourages talented sub-Saharan African engineers, from all disciplines, to develop local solutions to challenges in their communities.
Launched in 2014, the Prize aims to stimulate, celebrate and reward engineers who have developed innovations that will benefit Africans. The third Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is now open.
Eight other shortlisted innovators from the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation also received six months of mentorship and training include Kenya’s UjuziKilimo for sensors that give farmers soil profiles and advice for appropriate crops and required soil supplements, Tanzania’s Okoa,a web-based software that combats theft of medical supplies across the Tanzanian hospital network.
Ghana’s mechanical cassava harvester, an affordable tractor-mounted implement which reduces time and effort required to harvest cassava, Burkina Faso’s FasoPro, nutritional products made from dried Shea caterpillars that are high in protein and essential fats. MotoCharcoal team from Zimbabwe, for a safe cooking fuel made from leftover corn stalks and leaves, Nigeria’s Tryctor, an affordable, multifunctional tractor that’s easy to maintain for small-scale farmers.
Kenya’s Illuminum Greenhouses, affordable greenhouses made from local materials, equipped with solar panels and sensor technology that creates a controlled environment for crops and South Africa’s Drylobag ,designed to store and dry grain, reducing costs and the need for expensive infrastructure and equipment.
